Form
- British fighter James DeGale has held the IBF super middleweight title since May 2015, when he beat Andre Dirrell by unanimous decision. He has since defended that title twice, beating Lucian Bute by unanimous decision and overcoming Rogelio Medina in the same way. DeGale has previously held the British super middleweight and the European super middleweight titles, and has lost just once in his professional career. He has racked up a total of 23 wins, 14 of which were by KO. That means DeGale has won by KO in 58.33% of his fights.
- Swede Badou Jack has been the WBC Super Middleweight champion since April 2015, when he beat Anthony Dirrell by majority decision. He has successfully defended his title twice – beating George Groves by split decision in August 2015, and drawing with Lucian Bute. Jack has had 23 fights, winning 20. He's achieved 12 KOs, giving him a victory-by-KO strike rate of 57.14%.
Sports.net’s View
James DeGale is widely expected to win this fight, but he isn’t underestimating his opponent by any means, and has described Badou Jack as being ‘straightforward but very, very good’. Of the two, DeGale has won a higher percentage of fights by KO, but it would be a brave bettor who backs the Brit to achieve the 15th knockout of his career here. Jack has a good technical style that won’t give DeGale much room to spring a surprise and, whilst anything can happen when the fight is underway, we would expect the Swede to go the distance.
There is an option to bet on DeGale winning this match on points with William Hill, but we will side with the Brit to win the fight by any means so that we aren’t disappointed if he gets the job done early.
- Sports.net’s Top Tip – James DeGale to beat Badou Jack 4/11
*Please note, odds may fluctuate in the lead-up to the fight.
